Bitch Media - Bluestockingshttp://bitchmagazine.org/taxonomy/term/4240/0
enRevenge of the Feminerd: More Feminerd Forerunnershttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/revenge-of-the-feminerd-more-feminerd-forerunners
<p></p><P><IMG alt="Brown and gold birchbark etching of Glooskap and Agaskw that depicts two figures in a canoe" src="/sites/default/files/u36600/agaskw.jpg" width=300 height=205 align="left" hspace="10" />Earlier in this series I did a post on the <a href="/post/revenge-of-the-feminerd-bluestockings-the-original-feminerds">bluestockings</a> and a Facebook commenter suggested I do a follow-up piece on Japanese anarchist feminists. I thought now would be a good opportunity to mention them and some more feminerd forerunners from around the globe, including Kurdistan, Indigenous North America, and even ancient Babylon.</p>
<p>Obviously this post can't possibly represent the extent of those women involved in knowledge-production through history. I selected these examples mainly via suggestions I received on <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/jarrahpenguin">Twitter</a> and Facebook in response to the bluestockings piece. Most of the examples I'll talk about came after the bluestockings, but I did want to mention two examples from much earlier.<br />
<a href="http://io9.com/5805358/the-story-behind-the-worlds-oldest-museum-built-by-a-babylonian-princess-2500-years-ago">Io9 posted this week</a> about Babylonian Princess Ennigaldi, who established the world's first known museum 2,500 years ago. Our knowledge of the woman who started the museum is incomplete, but we know as daughter of the king, her life duties would have been mainly religious, "both as the high priestess of the moon god Nanna and as the administrator of a school for young priestesses." Ennigaldi's school had been running for almost 800 years when she took over and although her museum contained only a few dozen items, many were as old to her as the ancient Romans are to us.</p>
<p>Sometimes it seems as challenging as reconstructing histories of ancient Babylonians to recover details about the histories of Indigenous peoples. In North America and other colonized regions we still struggle with the legacy of colonialism that devalued oral traditions and set out actively destroying Indigenous languages and cultures through racist laws and residential schools.</p>
<p>What is clear is that a tradition of elder women as sources of invaluable knowledge has been part of many Indigenous cultures, including through legends of wise grandmother figures. In the Mi'kmaq tradition <a href="http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Nukumi_And_Fire-Micmac.html">Nukumi</a>, created when the sun spirit warmed a rock and it transformed into her, became grandmother to Kluskap, the first man. The legends say her wisdom was crucial to the survival of Kluskap and the first Mi'kmaq people. The same character is known as <a href="http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2009/01/grandmother-woodchuck.html">Agaskw (pictured in etching above)</a> in the Abenaki tribes and Nokomis by the Anishnabe.</p>
<p>Plains tribes have their version of the legend, with <a href="http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Sp-Tl/Spider-Woman.html">Spider Woman</a>, the wise woman teaching the Navajo to weave. In some Hopi legends Spider Woman worked with the sun god to create the first humans.</p>
<p>As some of the writers in <a href="/support-feminist-media/feminism-for-real"><em>Feminism For Real</em></a> point out, it's easy for white feminists to forget that for many Indigenous people, the road to equality for women is not necessarily one of progress forward but of reclaiming historical egalitarian traditions suppressed by colonialism. These legends and other records of Indigenous cultures pre-colonization show that well before white women were fighting for the right to go to university, Indigenous women were valued for their wisdom.</p>
<p><IMG style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN-LEFT: 3px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 3px" alt="a black and white photograph of hapsa khan wearing a scarf on her head and looking at the camera" src="/sites/default/files/u36600/hapsakhan.jpg" width=149 height=219 hspace="10" /><br />
Now jumping forward to <a href="http://kurdistanwomen.blogspot.com/2008/04/hapsa-khan.html">Hapsa Khan</a>, one of the earliest Kurdish women to lobby for women's education as a tool for empowerment. In the early 1920s she established the first Kurdish women's organization in Iraq and started an evening school for powerful women in the region. After her father's death she turned the family home into a meeting place for writers and artists. Even though she drew flak for taking on a "man's" role in this way, she continued to host these gatherings. Although Khan's causes were arguably more about Kurdish nationalism than feminism, she impacted Kurdish gender roles by pushing for women's education rights.</p>
<p><IMG style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN-LEFT: 3px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 3px" alt="a black and white photograph of Noe Ito, wearing a robe and her hair back" src="/sites/default/files/u36600/noeito.jpg" width=132 height=190 />Around the same time in the 1920s, a handful of Japanese women were creating an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcha-feminism">anarcha-feminist movement</a>. One of the most famous and possibly the most tragic figures in Japanese anarcha-feminism was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noe_Ito">Noe Ito</a>, who was killed at age 28 in a purge of anarchists by military police. During her short life, Ito translated Emma Goldman's writings into Japanese and established the arts and culture magazine Seito ("bluestocking"). She became an important figure in the Japanese anarchist movement and broke with social constraints of her time by leaving her first two husbands to pursue further education and political activism.</p>
<p><a href="https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/23260">Takamure Itsue</a>, another Japanese feminist anarchist, worked during the same era. Itsue rejected Western feminism and advocated a Japanese "new feminism" that emphasized women's freedom and agrarian self-government. In 1931 she began a monumental research project on Japanese marriage, which she felt was tied in with women's oppression. Her work on this project made her the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277539585900093">first historian of Japanese women</a> and her findings on Japanese matriarchal traditions have been invaluable for future generations of feminist scholars.</p>
<p>In North America, the <a href="http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/education.shtml">Seneca Falls Declaration in 1848</a> made women's rights to education a key goal of the emerging women's movement. But while it was difficult for white women to gain entrance to traditionally male universities and to be taken seriously once they were there, it was even more challenging (and continues to be) for women of color.</p>
<p><IMG style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN-LEFT: 3px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 3px" alt="Anna Julia Cooper wears a dress and her hair up and looks to the left" src="/sites/default/files/u36600/annacooper.jpg" width=130 height=193 /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_J._Cooper">Anna Julia Cooper</a> was just one of the amazing woman who fought against those restrictions. Born a slave in 1858, she received a scholarship to attend school at age 10. She stayed at school until age 24 and during that time demanded access to the higher-level courses that were reserved for men. She distinguished herself academically at the school and became first a tutor and then an instructor. Cooper became an international speaker on civil rights and feminist issues and published a book <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/A_voice_from_the_South.html?id=E9fct-Xf0-YC"><em>A Voice from the South</em></a>, which articulated a vision of empowerment for black women through education. Cooper lived to the age of 105 after becoming the fourth black woman in American history to earn a doctoral degree, when she was 65. <A href="/post/adventures-in-feministory-anna-julia-cooper">Kjerstin did a more in-depth post on Cooper</a> here at Bitch last winter if you're interested in learning more about her.</p>
<p>So yeah, I'm a <a href="http://www.gender-focus.com/2010/10/07/thursday-hockey/">big history geek</a>. I would love to hear your suggestions for more good resources on feminerds <a href="http://www.gender-focus.com/2009/10/29/womens-history-month/">of times past</a>, so leave them in the comments!</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/revenge-of-the-feminerd-more-feminerd-forerunners#commentsblack feministsBluestockingseducationfeminist historyhistoryindigenous womenrevenge of the feminerdHistoryFri, 27 May 2011 18:00:46 +0000Jarrah Hodge10487 at http://bitchmagazine.orgRevenge of the Feminerd: Bluestockings, the Original Feminerdshttp://bitchmagazine.org/post/revenge-of-the-feminerd-bluestockings-the-original-feminerds
<p><img src="/sites/default/files/u36600/007_p38.jpg" width="258" height="215" alt="a painting of three white women holding scrolls and paintbrushes" /></p>
<p>After writing my intro post for this column, Facebook commenter Jen mentioned the bluestockings and I thought it would be a great idea to dedicate a post to them: the original English feminerds.</p>
<p>The term bluestockings really caught hold when Elizabeth Montagu and Elizabeth Vesey founded the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Stockings_Society"target="_blank">Blue Stockings Society in London</a> in the 1750s as an informal social and educational group open to both men and women, modeled on the salons that had become popular in France. Blue stockings were cheap, in contrast to the bleached or expensively dyed stockings worn by upper classes, and there's speculation that the group got its name for allowing in a philosopher who showed up in his cheap blue stockings (that's right: the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Stillingfleet"target="_blank">first bluestocking was a man</a>).</p>
<p>Of course, there were women scholars around the world who were renowned for their intellect long before this, but bluestockings were seen as members of a group defined by their gender (although the term originally included men) and intellectual interests. They also dealt with a societal stigma that implied they were frumpy, uncivil (thus unfeminine by standards of the day), and doomed to fall short of male intellectual achievement. For these reasons, they're probably the closest historical group we have to today's feminist nerds, who obviously face less stigma but see themselves as part of a larger group of nerds and who challenge the idea that intellect is a male terrain.</p>
<p><img src="/sites/default/files/u36600/rowlandson-bluestockings_0.jpg" alt="rowlandson-bluestockings_0.jpg" width="260" height="187" alt="a cartoon of a group of men and women fighting" /></p>
<p>Bluestockings began to face ridicule as the gatherings of the society became more popular, and the term started to be used more generally as a pejorative to describe women pursuing higher education and intellectual advancement. The caricature above was drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and shows the negative view of bluestockings that began to proliferate. Being a bluestocking was seen to be antithetical to being a woman, since women seeking out intellectual pursuits was seen as unnatural.</p>
<p>But despite the stigma, the bluestockings (and similar groups on the continent) had a big impact on European society. In her book, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/6030306/Bluestockings-by-Jane-Robinson-review.html"target="_blank"><em>Bluestockings: The First Women to Fight for an Education</em></a>, Jane Robinson looks at the role Bluestockings played in the fight to get women access to post-secondary education. They had an uphill battle, facing conventional wisdom such as the idea that men's brains were larger than women's and therefore women were less able to learn.</p>
<p>Robinson cites one particular instance when a Cambridge professor in the early days of women's admission to university, on finding only women in his class, declared: "As there is nobody here, I shall not lecture today."</p>
<p>The tensions that were present among bluestockings are also reflective of some of the tensions we experience in feminisms today.</p>
<p>Although the bluestockings let in the poorer philosophers, theirs was largely not a working class movement. Like the first wave feminists who fought for women's suffrage, they rarely took on the rights of poor women or women of color, although there is evidence that some of the bluestockings were anti-colonialists.</p>
<p>Further, there were tensions between men and women bluestockings, with some concern that the men who were championing women's rights were doing so merely to advance their own Enlightenment political agenda (See Arianne Chernock's <a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=17615"target="_blank"><em>Men and the Making of Modern British Feminism</em></a>).</p>
<p>There was also conflict over striving to recognize the achievements of women <em>as</em> women. In addition to making the group a greater target for critique, it's similar to a strategy of the suffragettes in trying to argue women's rights by arguing women's greater virtue and her essential role as a wife and mother. For example, Mary Wollstonecraft's <em>A Vindication of the Rights of Woman</em> makes the case that women need greater education in order to discourage their vanity and to make them better teachers of their children and companions to their husbands.</p>
<p>The baton has passed many times from then until now but it's not hard to see similar arguments taking place in feminism today: there's still debate over the role of men in the movement, fights over exclusion based on class and race (and now sexual orientation and gender identification), and arguments about whether elevating women's status as mothers is a positive or negative strategy.</p>
<p>There's still work to be done before we get true educational equality for women of all races, sexual orientations, and gender identities in the West and around the world, but the bluestockings helped lay the groundwork for white, middle-class cis-women at least, to pursue study and intellectual achievement with fewer barriers and less stigma.</p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/revenge-of-the-feminerd-bluestockings-the-original-feminerds#commentsBluestockingseducationelizabeth montagufeminist historyrevenge of the feminerdHistoryMon, 09 May 2011 17:13:28 +0000Jarrah Hodge10216 at http://bitchmagazine.orgBooks for the Anti-Princess Girl-Feminist http://bitchmagazine.org/post/books-for-the-anti-princess-girl-feminist
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine/02FOB-wwln-t.html?scp=2&amp;sq=peggy%20orenstein&amp;st=cse"> Peggy Orenstein grapples with it </a> and so do many other feminist mamas, aunts, sisters, cousins, dads and uncles: what to buy your girl-feminist. A <i>Bitch</i> reader named Maura recently wrote to us asking readers to weigh in about the "best books for budding feminists," especially six- and eight-year-old girls. She writes: "There seem to be plenty of biographies that tell the stories of important women from the past—and that's great—but I'd like to explore <i>Bitch</i>-friendly fiction for younger readers as well." So, please take two seconds to channel your feminist girl-self and talk about the fiction that really made you feel like you could do anything and become anyone. </p>
<p>I asked Kimmie David, one of the owners of <a href= "http://bluestockings.com/ Bluestockings"> Bluestockings</a>—the radical bookstore, fair trade cafe, and activist center in the Lower East Side of Manhattan—to share her picks for the best feminist fiction or nonfiction books for girls. Here's what she recommends:</p>
<p><b>1. <a href="http://www.girlsnotchicks.com/"> <i>Girls Are Not Chicks Coloring Book,</i> by Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak </a></b></p>
<p><center><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2654/3794248924_82a04a133b_m.jpg" /></center></p>
<p><b>2. <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780140309577-0"> <i>Pippi Longstocking</i>, by Astrid Lindgren</a></b></p>
<p><center><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2590/3796045784_4212077275_m.jpg" /></center></p>
<p><b>3. <a href="http://www.catherinethimmesh.com/books/girls.html"> <i>Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women,</i> by Catherine Thimmesh</a></b> </p>
<p><center><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2537/3796047678_d48eec4ff8_m.jpg" /></center></p>
<p><b>4. <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/17-9780974257501-0"> <i>Call Me Madame President</i>, by Sue Pyatt</a></b></p>
<p><center><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2548/3795227731_2b6129a94b_m.jpg" /></center></p>
<p><b>5. <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/2-9780064403313-1"> <i>Harriet the Spy</i>, by Louise Fitzhugh</a></b></p>
<p><center><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3525/3794419421_6fd3e15c00_m.jpg" /></center></p>
<p>Kimmie also mentioned a few of her childhood favorites, including the original <i>Nancy Drew</i> series ("Despite all the weird racist shit that I didn't figure out was weird racist shit until I was 21. Oops"), the <i>Betsy Tacy</i> series, by Maud Hart Lovelace, and the everlasting <i>Eloise</i>, by Kay Thompson.</p>
<p>The Amelia Bloomer Project of the American Library Association is one of the best ways to find books with strong feminist themes for young people. It's an annual book list published by the Feminist Task Force of the American Library Association's Social Responsibilities Round Table. <a href="http://libr.org/ftf/bloomer.html"> Here's the past nine years of the list </a> and <a href="http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com"> their blog, too.</a> </p>
<p><center><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3476/3796210248_98d8af84fc_m.jpg" /></center></p>
<p>I can't finish this post without talking about one more book: <a href="http://www.andreauren.com/books-pugdog.html"> <i>Pugdog,</i> by Andrea U'Ren.</a> It's about a girl dog whose owner thinks is a boy. A friend gave my nephew <i>Pugdog</i> before his birth. Right now, he's all about loving Pugdog for escaping the vet (see above) and splattering saliva, but soon he'll discover all the lovely subtext about how rigid we are about gender in this country—and how wonderful it is just to break free.</p>
<p>What fiction books have you given the girl-feminists in your lives?</p>
<p><b>Related</b></p>
<p><a href="/post/adventures-in-feministory-louise-fitzhugh-harriet-the-spy"> Adventures in Feministory: Louise Fitzhugh &amp; Harriet the Spy</a></p>
<p><a href="/post/stories-for-girls-an-interview-with-lizzie-skurnick"> Stories for Girls: An Interview with Lizzie Skurnick</a></p>
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/books-for-the-anti-princess-girl-feminist#commentsAmelia Bloomer ProjectBluestockingsfeminist booksHarriet the SpymotherhoodNancy DrewPeggy OrensteinPippi LongstockingBooksThu, 06 Aug 2009 19:03:53 +0000Ellen Papazian1977 at http://bitchmagazine.org